Penn State Hazleton Plays Uptempo and Pressures Full Court To Run Past Worrhington Scranton

Penn State Worthington Scranton only suited up five women for their basketball game against Penn State Hazleton Tuesday night at the Dr. Thomas M. Caccese Gymnasium in Hazleton in a PSUAC game.  Three of those players scored in double figures, with two of them pulling down a combined 25 rebounds. However with no reserves on the bench to spell them, by the end of the game their upset effort came up short when the Hazleton Lady Lions ran the floor almost on almost every play and put up 78 points to their 71.

Mckenzie Prutsman led the charge for Hazleton with a game high 37 points and added 11 rebounds while teammate Kendra Pfeil hit for 12 herself.  The duo ran the uptempo game to perfection as they pushed the ball up the floor every opportunity they had. While the books showed no points for either team off of the fast break, a majority of the points for Hazleton came from Prutsman and Pfeil driving to the hoop. Shelby Berger and Sam Varela had strong games for Hazleton adding eight points each and Berger pulling down eight rebounds.  Monique Hicks had herself a night scoring 23 points and pulling down 12 rebounds while Jessica Berger added 17 points and teammate Jenna Pacella threw in 15 points and pulled down 13 boards.

In addition to the uptempo offensive strategy, Hazleton utilized a variety of full court presses to force Scranton to work extra hard to get the ball up the court. Despite the pressure and the pace, Scranton stayed with Hazleton the entire game.  Time and time again Hazleton would drive the basket and score only to see Scranton work the ball around, move up the floor, and drive the basket and score themselves. At the end of one quarter, Hazleton held a slim 20-12 lead and upped that lead to 44-36 at the end of the first half. While Hazleton came out fast again to start the second half and built it's lead to 18 points at the 6:05 mark of the third quarter, Scranton would not back down and actually outscored Hazleton 20 to 16. With Hazleton center Mekenzie Wolfe in foul trouble and sitting out a major portion of the fourth quarter, Scranton attacked the paint and once again outscored Hazleton 25-20 for the quarter. Whne the horn sounded ending the game, Hazleton found themselves on the upper end of a 78-71 score.

Statistically, it was a pretty even game between the teams as both Hazleton and Scranton shot 38% from the floor.  Scranton held the advantage in 3-point percentage 36% to 25% pulled down more rebounds 57-45 while Hazleton was better from the charity stripe hitting  71%  of their free throw chances to Scranton's 63%.  A tell-tale statistic of the night was in the turnover column, with Hazleton forcing 20 Scranton turnovers and scoring 19 points off of those turnovers. 

Hazleton goes to 7-8 on the season and 4-4 in the PSUAC while the loss drops Worthington Scranton to 1-13 ovr all and 0-9 in the conference.  The Lady Lions get right back at it Wednesday night when they travel to Penn State Fayette to play a game which was postponed earlier in the year due to snow. An early 4 PM tip off time is scheduled due to travel time.